James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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or by email:gurneyjourney (at) gmail.comSorry, I can't give personal art advice or portfolio reviews. If you can, it's best to ask art questions in the blog comments.

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All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

Even though the story takes place during the Crusades, Bartlett Sher's production conceives the action as an opera within an opera, set loosely in Rossini's time. Catherine Zuber's eclectic costumes mix medieval headdresses with hip panniers of the eighteenth century.

During the break between acts I sketched people in the lobby. One gentleman reviewed the playbill, his glasses hanging down below his nose, while others sipped champagne. When Liszt conducted the opera, he said it "bubbled like champagne," and distributed bottles of champagne to the audience, a perfect gesture for this effervescent opera.

Adèle was played by 27-year-old South African soprano Pretty Yende, whose Met debut was last week in this opera. These drawings, all made during the show, are about two inches high. The house lights were so dim that I could barely see what I was doing, so I was working by kinesthetic memory, and concentrating on big shapes.

In the story, the amorous Count Ory, played by Juan Diego Flórez, adopts a variety of disguises to woo ladies whose husbands have gone off crusading. In the second act he and his men gain access to the castle by pretending to be female pilgrims lost in a storm.

On the way home, the subway was jammed as tight as I've ever seen it. Everyone was bundled for the icy wind.

Keith, Framed narrative, yes, that's the word, at least for the Dinotopia books. This is more like a show with the pretense of the antique stagecraft techniques showing in the margins of the stage. There's a great old man character with no speaking part who sits off at the edge reading the script, cranking up the backdrops, and working the thunder sound effect.

Steve, Yes, I did a couple of other sketches, including some head studies.

Tom, there's a story about the water brushes. I dropped a darn cap in the first act, so I was holding a live ink brush right next to my white shirt. I stuffed the waterbrushes back in the plastic bag I had in the seat next to me and started feeling around with my feet for the cap. During the intermission I went down on my hands and knees with a little flashlight until I could find it. No matter. It was so dark that I couldn't have seen what I was doing, so I just stuck with the black pencil.

It is SO great/fun to see another sketcher tackling "sketching in the dark"!!!

I did the same thing a couple of months ago, and can whole-heartedly empathize in the feeling of sketching blind. I stuck with a fountain pen, though, and got some delightful results. Not nearly as refined as yours.

If you'd like to take a look: http://www.fruitrootleaf.com/2012/10/performance-art-sketching-opera-in-dark.html

since you must like opera , too, do you know about saturday matinees in the movie theaters? the met broadcasts live in hd, every single opera, once, on saturday afternoons. they're fantabulous. i'm in california and loving opera like i do,i get to pretend I'm in nyc at that fabulous venue…..check into it…… "met opera live" google search